Remove Offline Address Book (OAB) in Exchange

You can’t remove the Offline Address Book (OAB) in Exchange. You want to remove the OAB because you want to decommission Exchange 2010 or you don’t need it anymore. Why is it happening? In this article, you will learn why it is happening and how to solve the issue.

Error message can’t remove Offline Address Book

Start Exchange Management Console. Expand Microsoft Exchange On-Premises>Organization configuration>Mailbox. Click the tab Offline Address Book. Right-click the Offline Address Book. Click Remove.

When removing the Offline Address Book, you are getting the following error:

The following error screen is showing. Click OK.

Why are you getting the Offline Address Book can’t remove error?

The Offline Address Book is in use by one or more address book policies. First, you need to assign the policy to another Offline Address Book or remove it. I will remove it as I don’t need it.

Solve error through Exchange Management Console

Start Exchange Management Console. Expand Microsoft Exchange On-Premises>Organization configuration>Mailbox. Click the tab Address Book Policies. Right-click the policy that is associated with the Offline Address Book. Click Remove.

Address Book Policy is removed. There are no items to show in this view.

Results

Start Exchange Management Console. Expand Microsoft Exchange On-Premises>Organization configuration>Mailbox. Click the tab Offline Address Book. Right-click the Offline Address Book. Click Remove.

The Offline Address Book is deleted. No more error. That is fantastic.

Conclusion

In this article, you learned why the error is showing if you want to remove the Offline Address Book in Exchange. Don’t forget to remove the assigned address book policy first. Then you can safely delete the OAB. If you enjoyed this article, you may like Uninstall/Decommission Exchange Server 2010. Don’t forget to follow us and share this article.